Thursday, January 08, 2004
Jason Conley, Where Art Thou?
I don't know what Mizzou fans expected from Conley, but I know I was expecting more than this in his first 6 games...
Points by game: 19, 0, 2, 1, 5, 0
Minutes by game: 21, 23, 21, 19, 14, 9
Looks like Conley is heading further down Quin Snyder's bench with each performance.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Temple/Chaney Continued
The table below summarizes the shot distribution of Temple's oppenents this year - both in the games against Temple, and over the whole season. (3PA = 3-point attempts, FGA = field goal attempts, %3PA = 3PA/FA)
vs. Temple Season
Opponent 3PA FGA %3PA 3PA FGA %3PA
Villanova 18 43 41.9 219 602 36.4
Illinois 22 51 43.1 215 682 31.5
Rutgers 23 58 39.7 181 563 32.1
Drexel 28 55 50.9 181 582 31.1
Arizona St. 11 48 22.9 181 555 32.6
Penn St. 29 53 54.7 160 561 28.5
South Carolina 35 73 47.9 290 853 34.0
Miami FL 20 45 44.4 219 753 29.1
Indiana 39 61 63.9 234 606 38.6
TOTAL 225 487 46.2 644 1880 32.7
The only numbers that matter are the one under %3PA. From this we see that eight out of Temple's nine opponents so far have shot more three's than they normally do. Overall, teams have made 33.3% of their 3-point attempts compared to 34.3% on the season, so it's not like Chaney's defense is particularly good at affecting a team's accuracy from long range.
The previous post was titled "John Chaney, Genius". But really he is a defensive genius. Offensively, Temple becomes more and more anemic every year. Yet still, they are able to pull off a few upsets, clogging up the middle offensively and preying on teams laying bricks from the perimeter.
Monday, January 05, 2004
On the Radar: UCLA
Ben Howland may be a great coach, but in the case of taking the UCLA job this year, timing was everything. It really didn't matter whether UCLA improved this year, only that they didn't take a step back. Just standing still, UCLA is able to watch the rest of PAC 10 slide down a notch or two. Only Stanford, and maybe Washington St., are improved this year. After their sweep of the Oregon schools over the weekend, the Bruins look likely to return to the postseason. They take on the Washington schools on the road this Thursday/Saturday, and both games are winnable. Well, just about every game the rest of the way for UCLA is winnable, since almost every conference foe already has an embarrasing loss on their record.
Saturday, January 03, 2004
John Chaney, Genius
I didn't get to see any games today, but checking over scores, my curiosity was drawn to the Temple-Indiana game. Temple won 59-50. By the way, this makes IU 19-18 since Mike Davis lost his cool in the Kentucky game last year. But I digress - the key number from this game was that IU took an outrageous number of 3-pointers: 39.
This is secret behind the Temple defense. They let you shoot as many 3's as your little heart desires. And opponents don't shoot usually that poorly from the perimeter against Temple, although IU was not so hot. I'll expand on this later in the week, but the idea here is that great teams - teams that consistently play well - are built from the inside out. Chaney exploits this by being bound and determined to clog up the middle on defense.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
At this time last year…
On January 2, 2003, the lowest RPI-rated team to eventually get an at-large bid was Colorado at #103. Other low-rated teams included Cal at 98 and Syracuse at 63. All other at-large teams were in the top 60. Highly ranked teams that failed to make it to the dance included UNC at #12, UNLV at #17, Kent St. at #20, and Virginia at #22. There were only 4 unbeatens at this time last year - there are currently 11.
So while the RPI is still insignificant, teams like Providence (currently 3rd) and Texas Tech (6th) would have to to stumble badly to not make the field of 65 at the end of the year. Conversely, teams like Missouri (90) and Marquette (96) are putting all their eggs in the conference basket.